6.219 Qs: Primary verbs, ASL dict, Verb frequency, Proto-Iroquoian

The Linguist List linguist at tam2000.tamu.edu
Wed Feb 15 14:18:34 UTC 1995


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LINGUIST List:  Vol-6-219. Wed 15 Feb 1995. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 127
 
Subject: 6.219 Qs: Primary verbs, ASL dict, Verb frequency, Proto-Iroquoian
 
Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. <aristar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
            Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. <hdry at emunix.emich.edu>
 
Asst. Editors: Ron Reck <rreck at emunix.emich.edu>
               Ann Dizdar <dizdar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
               Ljuba Veselinova <lveselin at emunix.emich.edu>
 
-------------------------Directory-------------------------------------
 
1)
Date: Mon, 13 Feb 1995 13:48:14 +0000
From: Gisle.Andersen at eng.uib.no (Gisle Andersen)
Subject: Omission of primary verbs
 
2)
Date: Mon, 13 Feb 1995 07:13:58 -0800
From: comrie at mizar.usc.edu (Bernard Comrie)
Subject: ASL dictionary
 
3)
Date: Mon, 13 Feb 95 17:03:49 MET
From: Dirk Noel (noel at ruca.ua.ac.be)
Subject: Query: English verb frequency
 
4)
Date: Tue, 14 Feb 1995 14:05:45 -0500 (EST)
From: MARC PICARD (PICARD at VAX2.CONCORDIA.CA)
Subject: Proto-Iroquoian
 
-------------------------Messages--------------------------------------
1)
Date: Mon, 13 Feb 1995 13:48:14 +0000
From: Gisle.Andersen at eng.uib.no (Gisle Andersen)
Subject: Omission of primary verbs
 
Dear all,
 
I am writing a postgraduate thesis in sociolinguistics on a grammatical
aspect of the vernacular of London teenagers, namely the omission of the
verbs BE, HAVE and DO (the so-called primary verbs). The speakers whose
language is subject to study are teenagers from the London area, and most
of them tend to utter sentences like: (Omitted forms indicated in
parentheses)
 
(1)       What you on about? (are)
(2)       I seen it already.  ('ve)
(3)       Who she leave the baby with? (did)
(4)       I got loads of homework for tomorrow. ('ve)
 
(1-4) are, of course, "ungrammatical" in Standard English, since a tensed
verb is required in all these sentences. I assume that sentences such as
these are subject to some process of phonological simplification, resulting
in the omission of semantically insignificant elements such as the primary
verbs. This is presumably a result of speakers' opting for rapidity rather
than grammatical "correctness" in everyday speech.
 
Does anyone know of any other related research going on, or of complete
studies dealing with omission of sentence elements which are semantically
insignificant? I would also appreciate any references to literature
relevant to this topic.
 
Any information gratefully received.
 
Gisle Andersen
University of Bergen
Department of English
Sydnesplass 9
N-5007 Bergen, Norway
gisle.andersen at eng.uib.no
 
 
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2)
Date: Mon, 13 Feb 1995 07:13:58 -0800
From: comrie at mizar.usc.edu (Bernard Comrie)
Subject: ASL dictionary
 
I heard a brief reference on the radio to a new dictionary of ASL on
CD-ROM. Can anyone provide me with fuller details?
 
--
Bernard Comrie
Dept of Linguistics GFS-301                 tel  +1 213 740 2986
University of Southern California           fax  +1 213 740 9306
Los Angeles, CA 90089-1693, USA       e-mail  comrie at bcf.usc.edu
 
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3)
Date: Mon, 13 Feb 95 17:03:49 MET
From: Dirk Noel (noel at ruca.ua.ac.be)
Subject: Query: English verb frequency
 
Suppose one wanted to know what the, say, 300 most frequently used verbs
in British English are. How would one go about it? Is there a quicker way
of finding out than putting the untagged rank list in Hofland & Johansson
(1982) next to the alphabetical but tagged list in Johansson & Hofland
(1989) and doing lots and lots of calculations?
 
Dirk Noel
 
dirk.noel at rug.ac.be
 
CONTRAGRAM
Dept. of English
University of Gent
Rozier 44
B-9000 GENT
Belgium
 
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4)
Date: Tue, 14 Feb 1995 14:05:45 -0500 (EST)
From: MARC PICARD (PICARD at VAX2.CONCORDIA.CA)
Subject: Proto-Iroquoian
 
        I'd be grateful to anybody who could give me a reconstruction of
the Iroquoian sound system, or any reference(s) to such a reconstructed set.
 
Marc Picard
picard at vax2.concordia.ca
 
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